nerdTV: Can’t Stop the Watchening

Guys (and presumably some ladies) I’m going to be honest…I have absolutely no idea how to tackle the most recent episode of Arrow. On its face, it seems pretty straightforward, almost like a forgotten episode of Boston Legal or The Practice. The premise: A man, Peter Declan, sits on death row, days from execution accused of murdering his wife. Ah, but it turns out the wife worked for someone, Nathan Brojoe…Brobart…Broheim, whose name is in Oliver’s book of nasty men. Well, obviously, this must mean Mr. Declan is innocent! Oliver gets Laurel to reopen the case and while she battles the courts, Oliver goes on string of missions involving torture and coercing confessions out of people by shooting arrows through various body parts. It all felt very forced and very uncomfortable.

When the ‘innocent’ man was finally released from jail and his five year old daughter runs in for a hug, I kind of hoped he would pull out a makeshift knife and kill her, “JUST LIKE HER CHEATING MOTHER!” Dear god, just because someone’s name is in the book, it doesn’t mean they’re guilty of EVERYTHING bad that happens to those around them. Oliver, what have you done? You got a maniac released from jail! But that didn’t happen, everything happened as expected…except for the tease at the end of Oliver being arrested for being Arrow. I figured that sort of thing wouldn’t happen until the end of the season.

The heart of the matter: there was no compelling reason why Laurel would believe the word of an arrow wielding maniac responsible for god knows how many deaths. He basically just said, “I’ve got a book filled with names, they are bad people, the death row guy’s wife worked for one of these bad people, ipso arrow, he’s innocent.” “You’re absolutely right, murderous stranger, I will put my entire law career at risk and follow your magic book hunch.”

Of course a bunch of other ancillary stuff happened. Oliver convinced his bodyguard to be his sidekick and Oliver’s step dad finds out that the mom has the wreckage of Oliver’s boat in a hidden warehouse. The password to get into said super secret warehouse is ‘Robert’ by the way, so if you ever get a hold of a Queen bank card, the pin is probably 1234.

Random Arrow Thoughts:

Laurel’s law offices do not look like law offices, they look like the offices of a free newspaper called The Starling Chirp or The Weekly Blurb

Whenever Oliver meets with anyone, it is on the roof of a very tall building. Arrow’s greatest weakness? The Transamerica Building.

Oliver’s newest bodyguard looks like if Jason Bateman turned into the Hulk

Walking Dead Season 3:

Man, this was a fun episode. I’m liking the new take on the Governor. Gone is the Ted Nugent styled, leather pants and vest wearing, fu Manchu moustache having dude from the comics. Instead, we get a man who seems warm and folksy but in reality is a cold calculating monster. The only person who seems to realize this is Michonne, who stares at everyone (and everything) with a suspicious glower; if there’s one thing that annoys me in the episode, it’s that. Michonne isn’t angry all the time, she’s blank, passive, like a shark circling, it’s only when her eyes roll back into her head that you should feel terrified. I’m not going to spoil the end of the episode except to say that comic book fans should be delighted.

Comic Book Men:

Ghosts? The Jersey Devil? What? This is a show about comic book men in a comic book store, leave the monster hunting to those nonsense Discovery Channel shows.

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David DeMarco is Joe Patrick’s boss at Legend Comics & Coffee. He is able to write this column because Joe Patrick does all the hard work at the shop, while Dave drinks coffee and goofs around. This is an arrangement that is acceptable to Dave.